Strozzapreti romagnoli: the recipe with sausage and tomato

Strozzapreti are the everyday pasta. They needed no eggs, which were kept aside for Sunday’s sfoglia, the sheet of egg pasta, or sold at market, and they needed no equipment: water, flour, a rolling pin and the hands of whoever was in the kitchen. They were made in half an hour while the sauce ticked along, and they were made quickly, because there was field work waiting.

Why they are called strozzapreti

There are many stories about the name and in Romagna all of them are welcome. The one most often told is of the azdora, the woman who ran the farmhouse kitchen, who rolled the pasta between her hands with the gesture of wringing a cloth and wished the priest would choke on that same pasta: the clergy collected tithes on the land and farming families were not overly fond of them. Another version says that priests, invited to lunch, ate them so greedily they risked choking. We shall never know which is true, but the slightly crooked shape and the gesture of the hands tell of a pasta born from peasant anger and good humour at the same time.

Just water and flour

Without eggs the dough behaves differently: it is hydrated with warm water, worked for ten minutes until smooth, and rested only briefly, just long enough to relax the gluten. The sheet is rolled thicker than an egg one, a good two millimetres, because the strozzaprete needs body to survive the pot. If the well and the kneading are new to you, start with our guide to pasta dough basics: the gestures are the same, only the liquid changes. On the choice between type 00 and semolina we have written a separate article, but for strozzapreti ordinary type 00 is more than enough.

The rolling gesture is simple and takes three minutes to learn: a strip between the palms, the hands moving in opposite directions, the pasta twisting on itself. Then you snap it with your fingers every eight to ten centimetres. They are not supposed to match: the beauty of a strozzaprete is exactly its irregularity, which catches the sauce in its hollows.

The sausage and tomato sauce

A shape this rough asks for a sauce with character. Sausage crumbled and well browned, rosemary, white wine to cut the fat, tomato cooked gently for twenty-five minutes: it is a sauce you make while the pasta rests, and it needs no hours, unlike the ragù for tagliatelle. The spoonful of cream at the end is a modern liberty (which is why it is not in the list) that plenty of trattorie in the hills take without embarrassment: it softens the tomato and gives the plate a shine. If you prefer it without, a ladle of pasta water does the same job.

At the table

Strozzapreti are lifted into the pan, never through a colander, and tossed with the sauce for a minute. Parmesan grated at the last moment, freshly ground pepper, a glass of young Sangiovese. They suit any season, and in summer they carry a lighter dressing of fresh tomato and basil just as well: for more ideas, see the page for the strozzapreti shape.